Various types of machines have been developed for dispensing and vending lottery tickets that are printed in long strips, wherein each ticket is separable from another ticket by a perforation line. The tickets are generally stored in a fan-fold form in a vending machine and are dispensed upon the customer paying for the tickets. The tickets are printed on a relatively heavy stock and hence, have some stiffness but are flexible. The tickets can vary substantially in size and thickness depending on the lottery game, the design by the issuer of the ticket, etc. Examples of such machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,982,337; 5,160,076; 5,222,624; 6,726,077; 6,886,728; 6,932,258; 7,032,793 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0000572. Each of these patent properties is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Ticket dispensers such as lottery ticket dispensers are often distributed throughout a wide geographic area within which the tickets are sold, and the ticket dispensers are located in a wide range of retail environments. Further, the ticket dispensers may be stand-alone machines with little or no supervision. Therefore, it is important that the ticket dispensers operate very reliably over extended periods of time. A total failure of a ticket dispenser preventing it from dispensing tickets results in a substantial loss of revenue; and in addition, such a failure incurs a substantial cost in having to service the ticket dispenser in the field.
However, partial failures of a ticket dispenser can also be costly. For example, if the vending machine has multiple channels to dispense a variety of tickets, failure of a ticket separation mechanism that services all of the channels requires servicing and/or replacement of the entire mechanism. Needless to say, such a situation is very problematic to the issuer of the lottery ticket as well as the customer.
Another potential cause of improper ticket dispenser operation is the transmission driven mechanism feeding the supply of tickets to the separation mechanism for discharge to the customer. The arrangement of the ticket feed mechanism in many known systems is generally not optimized for compactness because of mechanical difficulties and expense involved in the axis of drive rotation.
Another problem with known ticket dispensers is the difficulty in unloading the last ticket in a strip of tickets. Some prior ticket dispensers include a ticket detection flag that will block the ticket and prevent unloading of the ticket channel. In such a situation, the removal of the last ticket can become time-consuming and mechanically involved.
Thus, there is a need for a ticket dispenser that is not only more reliable in operation but also easier to service when needed.